Shikha glanced uneasily at the man standing next to her in the elevator. Just a week before, there had been a long thread in their apartment community group on Facebook. The general consensus had been that the main elevators should be used only by residents and their visitors. The maids, gardeners, drivers, security guards, delivery boys, and all support staff were to be instructed to use only the service lift. This man was probably a driver in one of the apartments. Some people just didn’t keep their drivers in check. Shikha made a mental note to start another thread in the group.

The carpenter arrived just as she was unlocking her door. She made him wait outside while she fetched the money to pay him for the work he had done the previous week. She was glad that her husband wasn’t home. He had this annoying habit of inviting everyone inside and letting them sit on the sofa while they were waiting. The man was a social embarrassment. Last year, while visiting relatives, he had elicited gasps of horror from everyone when he gave a thousand rupees as shagun to the cook’s daughter. Who gives that much to these people?

She noticed the slight chip on the rim of the cup the maid served her tea in. It was from an old set. Some of the cups were already broken. Perhaps she should give it to the maid? They had separate utensils for their live-in maid. It was more hygienic that way. One of her friends once claimed it was ironical that it was hygienic enough for the maid to wash their utensils, but not to eat out of them. That damned female. She was always the NGO types.

Her husband returned in the evening. He was in a foul mood, pissed off at a colleague who was clearly incompetent despite being from an IIT. “He must be a quota guy,” she quipped. Both had a hearty laugh.

They had to go to her husband’s office party that night. She was chatting with one of his colleagues. He was a bachelor – smart, attractive, successful. Perhaps she could hook him up with one of her still unmarried friends. She found her opening when he was joking about how much he hated capsicum. “Are you vegetarian?” she asked. “I’m not fussy, I eat everything,” he said, with a dismissive wave of his hand. Not clear enough. “Were you born non-vegetarian?” she persisted. “When I was born, I could only drink milk. Was it any different for you?” he grinned. Idiot. Couldn’t he answer a simple question straight? Maybe she should hook him up with that NGO types.

Later that night, after her husband was asleep, she logged into her favorite website – Quora. There was a question, clearly crying for a strong answer. “In practice, how does India’s caste system work in the 21st century?”

“The caste system is almost non-existent, at least in urban areas…,” she began answering with total conviction.

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Partner Story

Be A True Ally To The Women In Your Life #ShareTheLoad

Women empowerment is one of the most important words of the present times. It is not a mere phrase but it rather represents a movement, which has been pending for the longest time. However, many have a misconception that educating women, “letting” them work, etc. is all that women empowerment is all about. However, the concept of women empowerment is more of an umbrella term. It intends to involve society as a whole, including men.

We always encourage and applaud a woman who successfully balances both work life and her household. But won’t it be easy for that woman if the load of the work is shared? We see that in our society a woman’s primary role is seen as that of a homemaker. At the same time, her personal likes, aspirations, and dreams are forced to be put on the backburner because of the undue expectation that she has to single handedly manage the household while balancing her career. To give credit where it is due, the times are changing. Men and women of the house are increasingly sharing the workload. However, one can also not turn a blind to the fact that a lot more still needs to be done.

Driving home the same concept, popular brand Ariel has come up with brilliant communication.

The video shows a mother speaking to her married daughter over the phone, all whilst cleaning the mess her son has created. She is absolutely heartbroken when her daughter says that she plans to quit her job since juggling both a demanding job and her household has become too overwhelming. It is during this time that she realises that while she and her husband as parents left no stone unturned to give an all-round upbringing to their daughter, they somewhere forgot to teach their son some basic life skills like cooking and doing laundry so that they grow out to be equally responsible in doing household chores. This is not a story of just one family, but of families across the country. These are some things which everyone must know, not for any other reason, but simply because these are basic tasks which are absolutely essential to survive. And, they make you capable to be equal partners tomorrow!

As Ariel raises an important question-is household work only a woman’s job? We need to ask ourselves the same question. A recent study revealed that the unpaid work done by women around the world amounted to 43 times the annual turnover of Apple Inc. It is high time we share the load and change the narrative that household work is the “duty” of a woman. As the video shows, contributing to the household work is not only a daughter’s work, but the son must contribute his bit too. It is also important for the parents to instil a sense of responsibility in their children, irrespective of their gender so that at any juncture of their lives, they are not completely dependent on another person for basic tasks like these. Ariel has been consistently driving this message and addressing the inequality within households since 2015. The Logical Indian applauds Ariel for coming up with such a brilliant video for depicting such an important concept.